Cellular radio communication services have evolved in a relatively brief period from early implementations offering voice only services, to voice with limited data services, such as short messaging service, to ever more robust data networks capable of delivering rich data services (e.g., 3G and long term evolution or LTE). Data services routinely expected by cellular subscribers may now include email, web browsing, and even streaming media services, such as streaming audio and streaming video. Unfortunately, demand for data rich applications seems to outpace technological advances.
At least one reason for such demand in a mobile cellular service is that subscribers have become accustomed to data rich services. Subscribers are familiar with Web browsing and their ever-expanding online experiences through their home and office networks. Home wireless networks and Wireless Fidelity (also known as Wi-Fi) hotspots provide subscribers with a sense that such data rich features are easily deliverable to any mobile device. Additionally, as mobile phones tend to become more like mobile computers, the line between phone and computer is blurred.
For the time being, mobile cellular radio networks have bandwidth constraints imposed by their very nature as radio networks. Namely, there are a limited number of frequencies available within a given geographic region to be shared by multiple cellular service providers and other wireless applications. Cellular services can be subject to more stringent regulatory constraints (e.g., wireless operational requirements imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)) than Wi-Fi services, which operate at much lower power levels. Accordingly, despite advances in processing power, storage capacity, and network availability, the constraints of limited over-the-air capacity of mobile cellular radio communications remain as a gating factor in delivery of rich data services.